Toy sounding space helmet



p 1964 F. J. cams'r 3,150,461

TOY SOUNDING SPACE HELMET Filed Nov. 25. 1960 2 sheets -s'neet 1 p 29, 1964 F. J. GRIST 3,150,461

TOY SOUNDING SPACE HELMET Filed Nov. 25. 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,150,461 TOY SGUNDING SPACE HELMET Franklin James Grist, 24 Winona Court, Appleton, Wis. Filed Nov. 25, 1960, Ser. No. 71,738 6 Claims. (Cl. 46-232) My invention relates to wearing apparel and more particularly to a childs helmet. Still more particularly the invention relates to a toy helmet of a general design commonly pictured in contemporary cartoons and illustrations as being worn by people from outer space or those journeying to outer space.

It is an object of the invention to provide a toy helmet of this type which emits a beeping or discontinuous sound signal in response to movements of the wearer.

More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a helmet of this type which has an antenna projecting upwardly from it which swings or vibrates in accordance with the wearers movements and which actuates a sound generator within the helmet to produce a sound at each end of the swing of the antenna, so that the helmet emits a beeping sound.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a sound generator in such a toy helmet that emits a sound which is unnatural in that it does not have the overtones that usual noises and sounds from living organisms have; and in this connection, it is an object to provide mechanism that supplies an electrical signal to a loud speaker in the helmet.

It is also an object of the invention to render the sound generator sensitive to variations in light by incorporating a photocell in the electrical signal providing mechanism, so as to vary the tone of the sound with light variations, the electrical signal providing mechanism preferably comprising a transistor oscillator.

The invention consists of the novel constructions, arrangements and devices to be hereinafter described and claimed for carrying out the above stated objects and such other objects as will be apparent from the following descriptions of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a childs toy helmet embodying the principles of the invention,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and showing a sound generator in the helmet with an electric battery for energizing it,

FIG. 3 is a view on a still further enlarged scale of a terminal construction for the battery,

FIG. 4 is a diagram of the electrical system of the sound generator,

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but of. a modified form of childs helmet embodying the principles of the invention and using a mechanical type buzzer as a sound generator, and

FIG. 6 is an electrical diagram showing the manner of connecting the buzzer in the helmet shown in FIG. 5.

Like characters of reference designate like parts in the several views.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, in particular, there is illustrated a childs helmet 10 formed with side protrusions 11 for the ears and with a face opening 12 in the front. The helmet has a protrusion 13 at its top which constitutes a housing for a sound producing unit 3,150,461 Patented Sept. 29, 1964- 14. The helmet is provided with sound apertures 15 therethrough at the base of the protrusion 13, a light aperture 16 in the front of the protrusion 13 and an aperture 17 in the top of the protrusion 13 for an up wardly extending antenna 18.

The protrusion 13 comprises a cylindrical part 19 having the aperture 16 therethrough and fixed, as by gluing, on to a cylindrical rim Zn on the top of the helmet having the sound apertures 15 notched into it. The part 19 has an inwardly extending flange 21 at its lower end and has an indented seat 22 at its upper end.

The protrusion 13 comprises also a top 23 having the aperture 17 therethrough and having a downwardly extending peripheral flange 24 which fits within the seat 22. The parts 19 and 23 may be fixed together by screws 25.

The sound unit 14, referring to FIGS. 2 and 4, comprises a loud speaker 26 of the conventional type having a vibrating diaphragm 27, a permanent magnet 28 and a transformer 29 with a winding 3t). The opposite ends of the winding 30 are connected to the base 31 and collector 32 of a transistor 33. A bias resistor 34 and a photocell 35 are connected in series between one end of the winding 36 and the base 31 of the transistor. The emitter 36 of the transistor 33 is connected to the lower end of the antenna 18. A battery 37 is connected to a center tap on the winding 31d and to a contact ring or eyelet 38 that surrounds the antenna 18 upwardly a short distance from the bottom of the antenna.

The battery 37, the transistor 33 and the resistor 34 are preferably mounted on an insulating base board 39 that is in turn fixed on the speaker 26. The speaker,

is mounted, facing downwardly in the protrusion 13, on the flange 21 by means of screws as. The antennalS is fixed to the periphery of the speaker by any suitable means, such as by means of one of the screws 49. The photocell 35 is fixed to one corner of the board 39 and is opposite with respect to the antenna 18, the arrangement being such that the photocell is immediately behind the aperture 16 in the front of the helmet and the antenna 18 extends through the aperture 17 which is in line with the aperture 16 and the center of the face opening 12.

The battery 37 is mounted with respect to the base board 39 by means of a central clip 41 that embraces the battery and by means of two end terminals 42 and 43. The terminal a2, is simply a piece of electrical conducting strip material to which the center tap of the winding 3%) is connected. The terminal 46 comprises two strips 44 and 45 in the formof right angles. The strip 44 has an opening 46 through it, and the two strips are held normally in face to face contact by means of the metal eyelet 38 extending through the two strips 44 and 45- and the insulating base board 39. The strip 45 is of electrical conducting material such as of spring copper, and the strip 44 is of insulating material such as fiber. The arrangement of the terminal 43 assures that only the small diameter positive terminal 47 of the battery 37 which is small enough to extend through the opening 46 may come into contact with the conducting strip 45 connected to the eyelet 38. If the batteryis reversed by j mistake between the terminals 42 and 43, it is apparent that no part of the fiat base of the battery may extend through the opening 46 into contact with the electrical conducting strip 45 to connect the incorrect terminal of the battery to the strip 45.

The antenna 18 is intended to vibrate due to the movement of the wearer of the helmet, and in order to encourage such action, it is made of a resilient wire, such as music wire, and is provided with a tip weight 48. The antenna 18 is preferably copper plated from its bottom upwardly a slight distance through the eyelet to promote good electrical contact between the eyelet and the antenna. The antenna may, for example, have a diameter of .020 inch or .025 inch; it may have a length of about 8 inches and the tip weight may weigh about 1 gram for good vibrating action.

The helmet is put in use by placing it on the head with the face opening 12 in the front and with the antenna 18 in the rear. The natural movements of the wearer in walking or moving about causes the antenna to vibrate about its base which is fixed under one'of the screws 4-0, due to the natural flexibility of the antenna and the inertia of the antenna including the tip weight 48. At the-ends of the swings of the antenna, it makes contact with the ring 38 and completes the circuit of the sound generator 14. The sound generator is thereby made operative, as long as the antenna is in contact with the ring 38, and the speaker 26 emits a tone signal. Since the sound generator is operative at each end of each swing of the weight 48, the sound generator thus emits a beeping sound, namely, short periods of sound spacedby longer periods of silence. The antenna may be expected to vibrate at a frequency of a few times a second giving a beeping sound of that frequency.

The transistor circuit illustrated in FIG. 4 is a transistor oscillator circuit producing an electrical wave that is impressed on the speaker 26 through the transformer 29. The lower part of the winding 3% receives energy from the upper part of the winding and feeds it to the base 31 tomaintain the circui in oscillation, in accordance with well known principles of operation of such transistor circuits. The speaker emits a tone that is quite unnatural in that it does not contain the usual overtones associated with the usual noises and sounds from people or animals. Such a sound thus adds'to the impression that the wearer of the helmet is in some way associated with outer space. The amplitudeof the vibrations of the antenna 18 are of course greater when swinging of the antenna starts due to an impulse from the wearer, as will be understood, and the antenna is in contact with the ring 38 longer 'at the ends of the antenna swings with the greater amplitudes of swing, so that the length of tone pulses decrease as the amplitude decreases, although the frequency of the tone pulses remains about the same. This decreasing length of tone pulses with decreasing antenna amplitude gives the impression that intelligence is being transmitted by the beeping signal from the sound generator as it is being actuated by the wearer of the helmet.

The photocell 35 may be of the usual selenium type, the electrical resistance of which increases with decreases in light intensity. The cell 35 is subject to the intensity of the light passing through opening 16. As the resistance of cell 35 increases, the bias current through the base 31 is cut, and the tone of the sound generator 14 becomes higher, and this change in tone also gives the impression of unearthly origin of the helmet and its wearer. The photocell may of course be omitted to give a direct connection from the lower end of the winding 30 as seen in FIG. 4 to the resistor 34. The value of the resistor may be changed to secure any desired change of tone of the sound generator as will be apparent.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, the modified helmet a, as illustrated, is provided with a cavity 50 therein which is formed by an upstanding peripheral flange 51 and has a flat base 52. The cavity 56 is closed by a top 53 which fits in an indented seat 54 provided in the flange 51 and which is fixed in place by means of screws 55. An antenna 18a, similar to the antenna 18, and also a vibrating armature type buzzer 56 are fixed on the base 52.

An insulator board 57 is fixed to the side of the flange 51, and an eyelet contact 38a, similar to the eyelet 38, extends through and is fixed within the board 57. An opening 58 is provided in the top 53 through which the antenna 18a extends, and an opening 59 is provided in the top $3 through which the buzzer 56 extends. A battery 37a is held in place in the cavity 50 by means of spring terminals 69 and 61 which are fixed to the base 52.

The buzzer 56 is of the conventional type having a magnetic core 62 with a winding 63 on the core. A vibrating armature 64 is arranged to be attracted by the core 62 when the core is energized, and a switch 65 is connected with the winding 63 and is actuated by the armature. The armature is connected with the bottom of the antenna 18a, and the battery 37a is connected with one end of the winding 63 and with the eyelet 38a surrounding the antenna 18a.

This embodiment of the invention operates substantially the same as the previously described embodiment, except that the buzzer 56 operates to produce the sound instead of the sound generating unit 14. As the antenna 18a contacts the ring 38a, a circuit is completed through the buzzer, causing the armature 64 to vibrate and the buzzer to sound.

I wish it to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, except only insofar as the claims may be so limited, as it will be understood to those skilled in the art that changes may be made without departing from the principles of the invention.

1 claim:

1. A helmet carrying a sound producing unit and an antenna in the form of a length of resilient wire fixed at its base to the helmet to extend upwardly from the helmet and having a weight on its tip so that the antenna bends and oscillates on movements of the wearer due to said weight and the resilience of said wire, and means operatively connecting said antenna and sound producing unit to cause the sound producing unit to sound due to the oscillations of the antenna.

2. A helmet carrying an electrically actuated sound producing unit and an antenna, said unit comprising an electric speaker and an electric oscillator connected to the speaker for causing the speaker to sound, said'antenna being inthe form of a length of resilient Wire fixed at its base to the helmet to extend upwardly from the helmet and having a weight on its tip so that as the wearer moves the antenna bends and oscillates due to said weight and the resilience of said wire, and means including an electrically conducting ring surrounding said antenna a dis tance above its base and constituting a switch for causing the sound producing unit to sound when the antenna contacts the ring at the ends of the oscillations of the antenna.

3, A helmet formed with a housing on the top of it, an electrically actuated sound producing units within said housing, an antenna in the form of a length of resilient wire fixed at its base within said housing and extending upwardly through an opening in the top of the housing and arranged as the wearer moves to'bend and oscillate on movements of the wearer due to'inertia of the antenna and resilience of the wire, and means including an electrically conductin ring within the housing and surrounding the antenna a distance above its base and constituting a switch for causing the sound producing unit to sound when the antenna contacts the ring at the ends of the oscillations of the antenna.

4. A helmet according to claim 1 carrying a light responsive means for changing the frequency of the sound producing unit with changes in light intensity.

5. A helmet carrying a sound producing unit and an antenna mounted on the helmet to extend upwardly from the helmet, said antenna comprising a length of resilient wire fixed at its base with respect to the helmet and arranged as the wearer moves to bend and oscillatedue to the inertia of the antenna and resilience of the wire, and

means operably connecting said antenna and sound producing unit to cause the sound producing unit to sound due to the oscillations of the antenna.

6. A helmet carrying an electrically actuated sound producing unit and an antenna mounted on and extending upwardly from the helmet, said antenna comprising a length of resilient wire fixed at its base on the helmet and arranged as the wearer moves to bend and oscillate due to the inertia of the antenna and resilience of the Wire, and means for electrically actuating said sound producing unit and including a switch means closed at the ends of the oscillations of the antenna for causing the sound producing unit to sound.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,235,851 Spence Aug. 7, 1917 1,754,360 Hendricks Apr. 15, 1930 2,054,484 Patterson Sept. 15, 1936 2,898,556 Matarese Aug. 4, 1959 2,927,310 Knapp Mar. 1, 1960 

5. A HELMET CARRYING A SOUND PRODUCING UNIT AND AN ANTENNA MOUNTED ON THE HELMET TO EXTEND UPWARDLY FROM THE HELMET, SAID ANTENNA COMPRISING A LENGTH OF RESILIENT WIRE FIXED AT ITS BASE WITH RESPECT TO THE HELMET AND ARRANGED AS THE WEARER MOVES TO BEND AND OSCILLATE DUE TO THE INERTIA OF THE ANTENNA AND RESILIENCE OF THE WIRE, AND MEANS OPERABLY CONNECTING SAID ANTENNA AND SOUND PRODUCING UNIT TO CAUSE THE SOUND PRODUCING UNIT TO SOUND DUE TO THE OSCILLATIONS OF THE ANTENNA. 